I think a lot of strange cultures talking to the rest of the world can feel like that -- especially as it's not necessary how those cultures talk to themselves. And visitors to a country often have a fairly predictable set of wow! (or wtf?) moments. So when there's a moment like a World Cup or Olympics you just see a lot of simultaneous commenting about stuff that isn't usually in the discourse. A lot of UK people (I'm British) fall into a fairly united pattern when addressing strangers about their country: talking up the NHS, queuing, the full english breakfast. Visitors to Britain will love double-decker buses, funny politeness and euphemism, everyday comedy etc, etc.

The air conditioning, Costco, sports complexes. even things like a gun show, or a silly Texas parade, are very often what tourists *individually talk about when they visit the US for the first time.

But I've been an American for decades. I _KNOW_ how foreigners talk about USA.

* Big portions of our meals? Check. If some European were taking pictures or talking up the SuperSize meal at McDonalds then yeah, that's "normal".

* Mega-Highways? Check. Our roads are a marvel to everyone (please ignore our lack of public transit. But at least we have highways). Both the shear size and scale, not just of the roads but also of our cars.

* Gun Ranges? Yeah, that's normal depending on which culture they came from. Some people like hunting and gun ranges.

* Size of the country? (2 hour drive is just one state over). Big road trips? Yeah.

Etc. etc. I already KNOW what foreigners think of my country.

But freaking air conditioning? No. Even poor Filipinos have air conditioning and aren't really wow'd by it these days. Certainly not in 2026. Filipinos will talk about maybe the "new air con bus" (in contrast to the Jeepny they used to take), but that's about how the Philippines has improved... a point of pride for the Filipinos and not an item of foreign wonder when visiting the USA.

If there's wonder or exasperation, its actually a negative. Filipinos find the air conditioning settings way too cold here in the USA to the point of annoyance. They're not "happy" about it like how it happens in these meme videos. If someone's skin is used to 80F, 90F or higher temperatures, sitting in 68F all the time is downright uncomfortable.

Europeans? Japanese? Koreans? They're even richer than Filipinos. They aren't going to be wow'd by this at all. They already have access to air conditioning, maybe not quite as much as us Americans but its not really a point of exasperation or wonder.

Other countries (including the ones mentioned above) have Costcos. Many of those stores are more impressive than in the US.

My office has a routine for entertaining foreign employees who come over for onboarding and that's basically it. Costco, gun range, a restaurant specifically known for it's huge portions, etc.